Inside The Narwhal

The Narwhal wins INNovator Award for seizing opportunity in crisis

The Institute for Nonprofit News awarded The Narwhal’s efforts to strengthen direct relationships with our readers amid the news ban on Facebook and Instagram

By Arik Ligeti

Sept. 19, 2024 1 min. read

The Narwhal’s response to the fallout from Canada’s Online News Act has taken home an innovation award from the Institute for Nonprofit News, a network of more than 450 independent media organizations that includes only a handful of Canadian members.

The INNovator Award, which The Narwhal won in the medium division, highlights work that has a positive financial impact on a newsroom and will help serve its community or audience into the future.

Last summer, when the federal government passed the Online News Act, Meta and Google both threatened to block all news content for users in our country. Instead of panicking, we saw an opportunity to start building more direct relationships with our audience.

Those efforts turned out to be pretty successful: thousands of you signed up for our newsletter and hundreds became members of The Narwhal.

Investigating problems. Exploring solutions

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for a weekly dose of independent journalism.

Investigating problems. Exploring solutions

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for a weekly dose of independent journalism.

The honour from the Nonprofit News Awards recognizes the efforts of co-founder Carol Linnitt, audience engagement editor Karan Saxena and, well, me, our director of audience.

It’s a thrill to earn this award for finding ways to not only survive, but thrive, as a sustainable news organization in turbulent times.

Despite platforms like Facebook and Instagram permanently blocking news in Canada, The Narwhal’s journalism is being read by more people than ever — all while being supported by a growing number of members, now counting 6,500, who support us with a monthly or annual donation.

(You can hear more about how we’re connecting with audiences in this interview I did with CBC’s On The Coast.)

The fellow INNovator Award finalist in the medium division was Documented NY, for its audience research to connect with Caribbean and Chinese immigrants of New York.

More ways you can stay connected with The Narwhal

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Like a kid in a candy store

When those boxes of heavily redacted documents start to pile in, reporters at The Narwhal waste no time in looking for kernels of news that matter the most. Just ask our Prairies reporter Drew Anderson, who gleefully scanned through freedom of information files like a kid in a candy store, leading to pretty damning revelations in Alberta. Long story short: the government wasn’t being forthright when it claimed its pause on new renewable energy projects wasn’t political. Just like that, our small team was again leading the charge on a pretty big story.

In an oil-rich province like Alberta, that kind of reporting is crucial. But look at our investigative work on TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline to the west, or our Greenbelt reporting out in Ontario. They all highlight one thing: those with power over our shared natural world don’t want you to know how — or why — they call the shots. And we try to disrupt that.

Our journalism is powered by people just like you. We never take corporate ad dollars, or put this public-interest information behind a paywall. Will you join the pod of Narwhals that make a difference by helping us uncover some of the most important stories of our time?

Yes, I’ll support independent journalism

Like a kid in a candy store

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Published By

Arik Ligeti

Arik Ligeti is The Narwhal’s director of audience, with a focus on growing a dedicated community of members and readers. Arik prev...

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